Student Submission – Final Project VCU FA24

Silenced Screens

In the glow of screens where voices rise,

Lies a shadowed truth, a web of lies.

Where Blackness blooms with radiant grace,

And womanhood carves its sacred space.

But here, the storm begins to brew,

An endless torrent, cruel and untrue.

Trolls sharpen words into jagged spears,

Algorithms blind to her hopes and tears.

Memes like masks, they laugh, they jeer,

Turning joy to whispers laced with fear.

Microaggressions slip through the seams,

Invisible threads unravel her dreams.

The hashtags pile, a digital pyre,

Fueling the flames of unholy fire.

Her name, her story, her every thought,

Reduced to rubble, discarded, forgotten.

Yet even in shadows, her light persists,

A phoenix rising through the mists.

Through biased feeds, she carves her lane,

Reclaiming power despite the pain.

Her laughter a hymn, her presence a spark,

Illuminating spaces are once cold and dark.

She wields her words like sharpened steel,

Forcing the world to see and feel.

In silenced screens, she plants her roots,

In coded soil, where strength takes to shoot.

Her voice, a current, electric and bright,

A beacon cutting through the digital night.

But freedom, she knows, is not just her fight,

Its hands intertwined, a collective light.

Solutions rise like the break of dawn—

Community, knowledge, and systems drawn.

Advocates calling, “Let justice thrive!”

Demanding the platforms keep us alive.

Coding new paths, a just design,

Where equality reigns in every line.

So let us remember, in this space of fire,

To challenge the poison, lift voices higher.

For where misogynoir casts its weight,

We forge new futures and recalibrate.

Together, we stand, defiant and proud,

Turning the murmurs into a crowd.

A chorus of power, a rhythm divine,

Building a world where her light will shine.